For more than a year, WillowTree Custom Homes has sought to build a luxury housing development on the border of Colleyville and Grapevine.
Colleyville City Council shot down the proposal twice after hundreds of residents opposed clearing hundreds of trees on the 14-acre site near Big Bear Creek.
Now, neighbors are preparing for a third showdown with the developer as council members consider a revised proposal Dec. 5. A final vote is not expected until Dec. 19.
WillowTree wants to change the zoning on 2417 Wilkes Drive and 6900 Pool Road from agricultural and single-family estate to residential. Zoning commissioners approved the latest plan last month.
Under the new proposal, WillowTree Custom Homes and their representative, Curtis Young of Sage Group Inc., will build nine home lots with an average value of $2.75 million. The previous application featured 14 homes in a new subdivision known as the Bluffs at Colleyville.
The revisions were made in response to feedback from neighbors and council members who wanted less impact to the natural features of the property, Young said.
“We believe the plan we are now presenting is unprecedented in modern Colleyville zoning history, in terms of the low-density and large lot size nature of the plan,” he said by email. “Those who claim to want nothing but ‘low-density’ development in Colleyville should embrace this proposal as an example of ‘How it can be done,’ instead of continuing to oppose it. We are hopeful they will.”
At least 200 Colleyville residents have signed opposition letters so far and more are expected, Tim Waterworth, a leader of the Save Colleyville Trees campaign, said. That’s enough opposition that the proposal will need a supermajority vote to pass.
While the developer has made concessions on the number of homes, WillowTree can’t change the inherent qualities of the land, Waterworth said.
“You still have a native old growth eastern Cross Timbers forest that is perched on the second- highest point in Colleyville with a steep slope into the Bear Creek watershed, which is prone to flooding,” Waterworth said. “I think they picked a bad spot to propose this development, and I think a lot of other people feel the same way.”
Waterworth’s ideal solution would see the land become permanent green space, potentially purchased with support from the Trust for Public Land. For the first time, Waterworth said, that possibility seems as if it has a fighting chance.
Following a Nov. 25 meeting with neighbors, Young is seriously considering a proposal to sell 6 acres of the property for conservation purposes while WillowTree develops the rest for housing, Waterworth said.
“If this works out, we could turn from citizens in opposition to citizens in support,” Waterworth said.
For now, he expects residents to remain steadfast in their resistance against the developer’s zoning application.
Volunteers have spent the past month spreading the word, with neighbors decorating a conservation-themed Christmas tree outside City Hall as part of the city’s annual Christmas celebration Dec. 1.
“I got to get people awake again and care enough to do something and to show up,” Waterworth said. “I think if we get the citizen turnout like we did last time, it gets denied again.”
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
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